Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe by Jenny Colgan

After being made redundant from an admin job with a property development company Issy doesn't really know what to do with herself.  She then decides to take on the lease for a small shop hidden away in Pear Tree Court and create her own Cupcake Cafe.  The property has held a few unsuccessful businesses over the years and is slightly hidden away but seems to be in a lovely setting.  She loves baking and makes lots of cakes using her old Grampa Joe's recipes and she also creates new recipes of her own.  Issy has never run a business before and relies on help from her friends and her local bank manager who all have faith in her ability to succeed.  

Included in the book are many of Issy's cupcake recipes. 

This book comes before 'Christmas at the Cupcake Cafe' which I have already read. 

Happiness for Beginners by Carole Matthews

Living in a caravan on a small 25 acre farm is the perfect isolated life for Molly Baker.  She is surrounded by animals that she has generally acquired as no-one else wants them.  She runs the farm as an alternative educational placement for children who do not achieve well in a mainstream school.  Some of the children attend every day and others for just a few days each week.  Working with animals can be a really positive experience for the children.

Shelby Dacre, a very attractive local actor, turns up one day with his son Lucas who has been excluded from school.  He is looking for help with his son as he is struggling with his behaviour.  Molly takes on Lucas and very soon begins to see a change in him.  Although Lucas is responding well to Molly, he still has a very difficult relationship with his father which Molly hopes to be able to change. 

All For You by Sheila O'Flanagan

The weather had always fascinated Lainey Ryan and so she studied to become a meteorologist.  Although now successful in her field she is sure that she is still a disappointment to her estranged mother, Deanna Ryan, who is a high profile feminist. 

Deanna returns to Dublin to do some research and film interviews for a new documentary she is planning.  Deanna had lived in America for many years and Lainey was raised by her grandparents in Dublin.  Very little is publicly known about Deanna's private life and the relationship with Lainey has never been mentioned.

Family secrets start to be revealed. 

Maybe This Time by Jill Mansell

On her first visit to the village of Goosebrook in the Cotswolds, where her Dad now lives, Mimi meets many of the locals and makes lots of new friends.  Four years later she moves to the village, having had a broken relationship with her boss and walked out of her job in London.  

Since her first visit Mimi has always really liked Cal but any relationship other than friendship just isn't possible.  He is now a single parent and focuses on his daughter and making her feel secure and happy.  

Mimi helps her friends to sort out their relationships but doesn't seem to be doing very well with her own. 

A Summer at Sea by Katie Fforde

A phone call from a friend asking for help comes just at the right time for midwife Emily who needs a break from the medical bureaucracy in her local Cotswold village.  Her friend Rebecca asks her to be the cook on their puffer boat in Scotland until the end of the holiday season. 

Emily arranges to take a short sabatical from her normal job and heads to Scotland to cook on the boat as Rebecca, at 6 months pregnant, is struggling to continue with the work herself.

Emily falls in love with the area and the people.  She is attracted to Alasdair the local GP who is also Rebecca's brother in law.  But although he is also possibly attracted to her, he is a single parent with a small daughter who must always come first in his life.

She had been convinced that she wanted to stay single and not have children of her own but then, after Rebecca gives birth, she changes her mind. 

Trust Your Eyes by Linwood Barclay

Following the accidental death of his father, Ray Kilbride returns to Promise Falls to make the funeral arrangements and to take care of his brother Thomas.  

Thomas has always been obsessed with maps and he spends all day sitting at his computer using a programme called Whirl360.  He looks up and down streets in all cities in the world learning all the details.  He is convinced that one day all the on-line maps in the world will vanish and the CIA will call on him for help with navigation. 

During one of his on-line sessions Thomas looks up at an apartment block and sees a face in a window.  It seems to be a head with a plastic bag pulled tightly over it.  Has he witnessed a murder?  Thomas convinces Ray that he has to go and find out what has happened. 

Broken Promise by Linwood Barclay

Having been asked by his mother to drop off a bag of food for his cousin Marla, David Harwood finds her holding a baby.  She says she was given the baby by an angel.  

David tries to find out who the baby belongs to and return him to his family.  When he gets to the family's home he discovers that the baby's mother has been murdered.  Marla is the prime suspect although she insists that she has never been to the house and does not know the murdered women. 

On behalf of the family David must find out as much as he can about what has happened to try to save Marla from being sent to jail for murder.

A Tap on the Window by Linwood Barclay

On a rainy evening, whilst waiting at a traffic light, a teenage girl taps on his car window asking for a lift home.  The girl recognises the driver as Cal Weaver, local private investigator and father of Scott Weaver who had been in the same school class as her.  As she knew his recently deceased son and she is worried that someone is following her, Cal opens the door and lets Claire into the car.  On the way she asks him to pull into the car park of a local diner as she feels unwell.  The girl who later gets back into his car is not Claire.  

The next day Claire is missing, the girl who had swapped with Claire is found murdered and as Cal seemed to have been the last person to see both of the girls he becomes a murder suspect. 

Cal needs to find Claire and ask her who she is running from so that he can work out what is happening and who the murderer really is.

I also have the following books by the same author on my bookshelf to read, they came together as a boxed set: 

Broken Promise

Trust Your Eyes